Saturday, May 26, 2012

Excited that I finally have some energy to put into sculpting! The armature is the hardest part for me- although it's easy to find the materials and work with wire, I really have to plan out proportions and double check things a lot - especially the legs. Then the fun part-- slapping the clay on. Although this time I got a giant bag of self-hardening clay, which does crack if it dries too fast. That's another problem but. Yeah. I'll see what happens..

I had a fun experience in OSH trying to explain what I needed- they didn't know what an armature was. And I didn't know any tool jargon. So I ended up drawing a diagram, and they found me some stuff, but in the end I found the things myself. hahah. Still don't even know what they're called.

Here my Frankenstein looks out to the decaying lighthouse, also the lab where he was created.

One thing that has been on my mind for a while is this reoccurring story of Gilgamesh the traveler. It's a part of the ancient epic where Gilgamesh's greatest friend Enkidu dies, and suffering from loss Gilgamesh sets out to the edges of the world hoping to find answers behind the mysterious force of death. Basically this illustration came out of that sort of singular, searching feeling. As is so beautiful about the story of Frankenstein; as a monster we don't expect him to have such a painful consciousness of things. So here he is on the rocky shore of existence.

There is something profound about coming to the sea, or looking out to the horizon. It's something of loneliness, of recognizing your singularity in the vastness. One of those really human moments. Here's a shot from Fellini's I Vitelloni that I love.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Hi all! Here I am being an artist with my horse sculpture in the annual student gallery show. I'm really happy it has been able to be presented formally where it looks its best! It's fragile and heavy, so I'm really grateful for the efforts of the gallery volunteers who dealt with it perfectly.

It got its own corner. And look at the shadows. This makes me happy.

Also, thanks to my 4.0 GPA (and some successful last-minute artist statement writing) I've been awarded an Academic Achievement Award Scholarship, given to me by the Dean of CSUN himself. Congrats to my friends who have also received awards - the great sculptor Garett Pointer, and talented cartoonist Sandra Rivas. Also a big thanks to my mentoring professors Mark Farquhar, Mary Trujillo, Christian Tedeschi, and Ken Jones; with them I've had such a good experience at school these past few years.